Grass-Based Agriculture

Grasslands are an environmentally-friendly renewable resource that can be used for the grazing of dairy cows and other livestock or for producing hay and silage for winter feed. Grass is the recommended crop for many acres of North Country farmland given the climate and soil resources of the region.

An estimated ten percent of the farm acreage in Northern New York is pastureland. Grass-based agriculture is becoming more popular as a way to lower farm expenses by more intensively using pastureland as a source of high quality summer feed for dairy herds, for finishing beef cattle and for increasing numbers of sheep and goat enterprises. Additional acreage is used to produce grass for hay and silage. "Grass-fed" farming practices are being used as a marketing tool to sell meats and other products.

The production of forages, legumes and grasses not only offers a low-cost source of livestock feed, but an income opportunity as the grassland crops become more viable as energy source crops. These crops also serve land conservation purposes, such as flood and erosion control, carbon sequestration and the preservation of natural habitat for birds.